On Oswalt, Pods and Beckham

Lots of good stuff Monday before the Sox opened their longest homestand of the season with a game against the A's:
*Forget about the White Sox trading for Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt. GM Kenny Williams likes to keep everybody guessing, but he shot down that rumor.
*The White Sox are feeling pretty good about themselves after a 5-1 road trip to Anaheim and Kansas City, as they should be.
"We play better, a lot of things are going for us," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I think everything starts with the pitching and the starting rotation. The bullpen's throwing the ball real well. I think we are more aggressive on the basepaths.
"Obviously, everything sounds and looks good when you're hitting and scoring some runs. When we were struggling, we couldn't buy a run. We were pretty bad offensively. Defensively, you know, we make a couple plays out there to save the game, and we've been playing great defense. When you put it all together, everything is going forward, but the main thing about baseball is keep it the longest you can. The winning streak, keep it the longest you can."
*Scott Podsednik is coming off a monster road trip, going 11-for-30 (.367) with 5 RBI and 6 runs scored.
The 33-year-old outfielder has been much better than expected since coming up from Class AAA Charlotte on May 2, batting .297 overall.
Podsednik has been doing a pretty good Ichiro impression the last few weeks, taking a few steps toward the pitch before swinging.
“I'm kind of back to regular again,” Podsednik said. “I wasn't feeling real comfortable and I just kind of wanted to change something up. I wanted to try and shake things up a little bit and make some things happen. And it did. I got some hits doing it. It hasn't felt that comfortable as of late, so I'm now back to being normal.”
*Ozzie, being typically blunt, said he doesn’t know what all the fuss was about last week when top prospect Gordon Beckham was promoted from Class AA Birmingham to AA Charlotte.
“The last thing we worry about is Beckham, and I don't know why people in Chicago fell in love with this kid,” Ozzie said. “He's a great player, he's going to be in the big leagues, he's going to be a big part of this organization pretty soon. But we don't have Beckham on our mind right now. I don't and I'm the one making the lineup. If we have Beckham here, we're in trouble.
“That kid needs to play. A lot of people say between Triple-A and the big leagues is one jump. It's a huge jump. In Triple-A you're going to face a good pitcher maybe once a week. Here, it’s every day.”

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Chicago's Inside Pitch

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Bruce Miles and Scot Gregor

Bruce Miles has been covering the Chicago Cubs for the Daily Herald since 1998, and major-league baseball since 1989. He grew up in Chicago and is one of those rare birds who followed both the Cubs and White Sox.

Along with Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes, Bruce co-authored the book, "Harry Caray: Voice of the Fans."

He checks in on the fan blogs and is a daily reader of Baseball Prospectus.

Scot Gregor has been covering the Chicago White Sox for the Daily Herald since 1994, and major-league baseball since 1990.

He grew up in Pittsburgh, where he idolized Roberto Clemente. Scott graduated high school in 1979, when the Steelers and the Pirates were both the best in the world.